होमलेस

दीवारें हैं,
दरवाज़े भी,
खिड़कियाँ हैं,
पर खुलती नहीं,
एक बिस्तर है,
रात सोने के काम आता है,
मेरे भी,
कंप्यूटर के भी,
और कुछ किताबों के,
एक कमरे, हॉल, और रसोई का,
पूरा अपार्टमेन्ट है,
पर तेरे बिना,
मेरे पास घर नहीं.

Write about the Right in the Right Place

RTE. Right To Education.

Have you heard about it? I am more or less sure that you have. But where do we all get to know about the RTE? Mostly in Newspapers, a few magazines, blogs etc.

All the places that are untouched by those for whom the RTE exists. Because they're the ones, who cannot read, or if they can, they do not reach these high level media.

So here is the question, how to let those-who-need-it-the-most know about RTE?

A simple suggestion is, mass media. Let it be known in every home through the mass media that is Doordarshan and All India Radio.

And other than that?

We can tell about the RTE to the very targets of RTE. Kids.

We can have chapters about RTE in the syllabus, say, from V standard or so, so that every kid knows about his or her basic right, and the very schools who might be a block in the RTE would be assigned to teach it. Of course, it is not as easily done as it's said, but even if every kid has written about RTE in her books, the average knowledge of a kid about the RTE will be much more than it presently is. And that CAN make things much better, provided the NCERT and others are able to make every kid understand how important RTE is for them and kids around them.

Bengaluru: In the Wrong Lane

This article probably needs some attention. Because the big authors who travel in cars probably won't be able to see this issue that closely as the average guy on the bus would. Therefore I, a guy who travels to and from office on a bus, decided to write about the small changes being made. Changes that become a loud message as they hit tens of thousands of citizens everyday.

While Bengaluru is desperately waiting for Namma Metro to get into work mode from its present tourist mode, the traffic is not in a mood to wait, and is increasing every day. The number of cars is going up by thousands every month. And while there should be encouragement for public transport users and cyclists in order to not just keep the traffic smooth but help save the environment as well, we seem to be making traffic rules for cars instead. It seems we're forgetting that cars can hardly be the lifeline of a city, even if it's the CEO-city of Bangalore.

Let's talk about the buses in Bangalore. The bus services in the city is in general good, and with a few new buses launched every year, things are not in a very bad shape at least. But other than that, the convenience of a bus taker is a different matter altogether, and depends a lot on the wishes or whims of the drivers and conductors.

First of all, even though there are a lot of buses on the 'popular' routes, a little less popular routes seem to get not enough attention from the BMTC officials, and then bus conductors/drivers as well who may decide not to go on a route if they don't so wish. In fact this is not limited to unpopular roads as I can tell I've never seen a bus going from my home (that is the bustling Whitefield bus stop) to my office on Outer Ring Road, near KR Puram. That is irrespective of the fact that I have caught bus 504A from Whitefield, which should take me to my office.

On top of that, in almost every place, bus stops have been shifted or are being shifted ahead of their earlier locations. This creates inconvenience for those who need to change buses as one needs to walk hundred to three hundred meters extra on an average. Such things definitely discourage any people who think of taking a bus, especially at times when one is in a hurry to reach the office or back home.

Talking of another environment friendly option, i.e. cycling, there are very few cycling tracks for the cyclists, and travelling with all the cars and bikes and superbikes in every nook and corner of the city, things are getting unsafe for cyclists. But that is not all. We now have longer U turns and signal free corridors, which make path much longer, creating unnecessary load for cyclists. In such a situation, even proud cyclists are forced to rethink over their commuting options, leave aside a person who might be still thinking of getting a environment-friendly bike.

So while it's good to give space to cars to travel smoothly, it sends a wrong signal to the city when they get priority over public transport and environment friendly commuters. This discouragement to the latter two, even if looking like creating minimal problems, will in turn force more private vehicles on the road, making this a vicious circle which would harm us even more in longer term. We need to get our priorities right. Right now.

Taking Government Seriously

Before UPA-II, I never took governments seriously. When they said they were going to do something good, I'd consider that their time pass, and when they actually declared something good, I'd consider them lollypops for the public. But now it's different. Now every time the government comes up with some really important and big, even things I have always wished to happen, all I think is How many thousand/lakh crores can be made out of this and/or how is the government going to control people with this measure/law. This is what I find unfortunate. I hope a non-working government (say NDA) would be better than this.

The Itch

So I'm writing. After a long time, I guess. Not like I have not written anything for such a long time, but whatever I have written in all this time was not really writing. It did not come out of that itch that the hand feels when it has not written for long. Instead it mostly came out for the reputation I think I have established among the online Hindi music junkies. The reputation actually exists or not, I have never tried to assess, though what I have been able to confirm is that I have my presence across the webliophilic websites of the world. I don't really know what I should talk about here, or what I want to talk about, so since I have been thinking about the itch of hand, let's continue on that. This itch is a strange thing. It does make you write, but it doesn't generally give you enough matter to write a small essay on. I mean, mostly one can write a small paragraph out of it, and then it stops. Even worse, when you start writing without 'the itch', the itch almost does not surface. Not easily. And the result is that you keep writing for these things, while most of the times, 'the itch' was the main reason you started writing in the first place. And thus, due to lack of 'the itch', the flavor that existed in what you wrote, goes. Many times. So it's an important, very important duty of yours to maintain that itch in whatever ways possible. Whether you need to take breaks, or need to go out of your regular zones, mentally or physically, or just think a little out of the box or cubicle or sphere. And yes, while it's not easy to maintain that itch, there are the other type of people too, who make the mistake of not writing when their hands feel 'the itch'. For them, a strict warning and a humble request, please write, irrespective of the time you can find, because if the itch goes, it may never come, and you might actually feel an itch to bring it back when 'the itch' is no more.